8 Month Pre-natal Visit

32 week OB visit summary

Overall weight gain 22 lbs

In the last month  10 lbs

Fundal Height 32 cm

Fetal Heart rate normal

Blood pressure 120/80

ARRGH! I accidentally deleted by 7 month pre-natal post!  I was using my iphone and trying to select my heading details and somehow managed to push cut with my fat finger instead of copy, there was no undo, no saved version.  It is gone. *sigh*

So this post has been much delayed due to dismay and aggravation over losing my 7 month post.  

At the time I am writing this I am actually almost 9 months pregnant.

What's new?

• Swollen ankles - it must be some cruel cosmic joke that as soon as the weather got nice enough to wear shorts and skirts here in minnesota my ankles decided to turn into cankles.  Luckily for me it has been a very late and cool spring here so I haven't roasted to death with my compression stockings.

Are compression stockings really necessary? No.  Will they prevent varicose veins?  If I had thigh high stockings they would but mine are only knee high.  I wore them in my last pregnancy and I have a little bit of spider veins on one of my legs from that.  So why wear them?  Swollen ankles and feet makes me uncomfortable in a way that is difficult to describe, also one day it was bad enough that it made my toes a little numb.  I just plain don't like having swollen ankles.  The recommendation is for 20-30 mmHg of compression.  The socks are expensive $30-40 a pair.  My insurance did cover half of one pair, but who is going to wear the same pair of socks every day -ew.

Last pregnancy I had three pairs that I washed with soap and water at night and wore each one twice with one day off on laundry day.  This pregnancy I filled in with three more pairs, so I have a wealth of compression stockings.  You know you're jealous.

• Weight gain - my weight gain has been exponential these last 6-8 weeks.  I am outside of my goal of 25 lb weight gain now.  I try to focus on protein, and foods with low sugar and saturated fat.  However, despite my best efforts I have had a return of some days (evenings really) where I am so unendingly hungry that I eat the equivalent of two dinners and two snacks.  I don't really feel bad about this.  I don't eat when I'm not hungry, and when I do eat I try to choose things that are healthy for me and my baby.  I'm not going to go hungry, and that's final.  So I guess it is what it is.  And I'm still a good 20 lbs under what I was at this point in my last pregnancy so there.
• Anemia - my hemoglobin has remained low but stable at 10.7.  I have upped my iron to twice daily (with a nice dose of senna for constipation).  My family has made some effort to eat more red meat and dark leafy greens as well.  Hopefully it will come up a little more before I deliver.
• Doulas - we have had our first and second meetings with our Doulas Amber Kay and Nicole Strekker.  We have ironed out our birth letter which I will post for those who are interested.  We are also working on packing our bag for the hospital - all information for the 9 month post.

All in all I'd say things are going along well.  Thanks for following, the end is near!